How to execute SQL commands from a file in PostgreSQL

In my case I had a .sql file with hundreds of insert statements and I wanted to run all of them, I was left with two options namely manually entering every command via copy and paste or executing the file. I went for the second option and it worked. I used Postgres 8.4 on the command line on a Ubuntu machine.

Answer:

Follow these steps

• Connect to the relevant database eg.

  sudo -u postgres psql MYDB
  

• Then run

  \i MYFILEWITHCOMMANDS.sql
  

  \i means execute commands from file

• All commands will be executed.